Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar plans to raise Pakistan's key security concerns including the use of Afghan soil by banned TTP and use of American weapons when he meets the Afghan Taliban leadership on Saturday in a maiden visit to Kabul.
The foreign office on Friday officially confirmed that Dar would be traveling to Kabul on Saturday at the invitation of his Afghan counterpart. This will be the first visit by any Pakistani Foreign Minister to Kabul in 3 years and comes against the backdrop of renewed push to ease tensions.
"At the invitation of Acting Afghan Foreign Minister, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, will lead a high-level delegation to Kabul tomorrow (Saturday)," said the foreign office spokesperson at the weekly news briefing.
"During the day-long visit, he will call on the Afghan Acting Prime Minister; meet Afghan Acting Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs; and hold delegation-level talks with Acting Foreign Minister," Shafqat Ali Khan told reporters.
He said the talks will cover entire agenda of Pak-Afghan relationship, focusing on ways and means to deepen cooperation in all areas of mutual interests, including security, trade, connectivity, and people-to-people ties.
The Deputy Prime Minister's visit is a reflection of Pakistan's commitment to enhance sustained engagement with the brotherly country of Afghanistan.
When asked whether Pakistan would raise the issue of terrorist sanctuaries during the visit of Dar, the spokesperson said all issues would be on the table.
"What I can say is that the question of sanctuaries and terrorism has been raised multiple times and we will keep raising it. We want to find an amicable solution to this challenge," he said.
There have been flurry of engagements between Pakistan and Afghanistan this week. While Pakistani delegation led by Ambassador Muhammad Sadiq Khan travelled to Kabul, the Afghan side headed by its commerce minister was in Islamabad.
During the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) meeting, the Pakistani side felt that there was a change of in the approach of Afghan Taliban government towards the TTP.
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